Thursday, September 11, 2008

another tour finished!

this post will cover much ground, as i see i haven't posted since NYC. bad kitty.the tour is finished and i am hanging out with Batman in the treehouse, life is good.My apologies to everyone who is patiently waiting for the new tshirts, they should be out shortly, when you read the post, maybe you will have love in your heart for how my summer was spent!? It was a great deal of work blended with fun, and things may have gotten a little behind on Neverwear, as Ethan was doing his own tour work everyday here in LA---he got to do NIN rehearsals and VMAs, so as the SHipElf, he got a little behind. There will be "thank you presents" in any of the late orders, we really 'ppreciate your patience.

Neil is in China, and has sent some jaw-dropping photos, I am so excited to hear about his travels in person...I am going to be on several of the Graveyard Book US tour dates with him, so please come and say hello, so I can meet some of you. I will post the dates in the new blog.

meanwhile, here are some of my reports from the road:

Jonas Brothers in Madison Square Garden, we did three nights there. When we arrived, the two blocks were covered in police cars, I don't know if it was a drill or because of the JoBros?

Their fans are beyond devoted. Every night, countless handmade items were delivered:

the creativity of the fans was impressive, from hairbrushes (email contact edited out!) to finger puppets, they found a way to send their messages to the boys.this is Misty, the mistress of the Jombies:

Here is a slab of the basketball floorboards backstage. It really was a piece of magic being there.

I got to meet with Charles Brownstein, head of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, he of the charming league of gentlemen, we had a great time at the Irish pub across the street from the hotel. I got to see Wendy, my partner from many years ago in the Harborplace pushcart scene, her adorable little family came to visit me. (I do believe Haven is a real vampire living in Brooklyn...?) Michael Stewart and his girl Joey entertained us at the Beauty Bar, grateful as always, my Rehoboth brother!

The sponsor bus was parked out in front of the Garden and it got completely tagged. Even with security around the clock, the fans proceeded to cover every inch with paint and who knows what else.

We were following around several of the summer tours, one being Elvis Costello & the Police, saw their directional arrows in many of the venues:

another being Slipknot, who forgot to eat their greens....

the Burger King came to one of our shows, and i ran away, he was so scary:

I got to see my family on several of the day-off stops, Denver, Cleveland, DC---here is my cute dad with my nieces, Abra & Thalia (who wanted to know if the Jonas boys could play at their slumber party):

Drew and I decided to have a movie date, although we were in different cities.

We both went to see The Dark Knight on the same day, my theater was completely empty, until about two minutes before curtain, and a lady with a baby came in. Yes, the baby cried. I almost did too, the film was so powerful. go see it. do!

I got to be an honorary pyro crew member for the day, thank you Kev-o, here he is pointing out how to push the button:

Jonas camp touched down on a string of state fairs. Our gear didn't really fit on these postage stamp stages, but our stellar stage manager Brian did his very best. The crew, of course, had a blast at the fairs. I think many of us are roadies because of going to carnivals in our younger days and being entranced by the carny lifestyle. Set up in a city and then tear it all down...

Big Rob (the boys security detail) made us tshirts as a thank you to the crew (modelling for us is darling Sherman from the Veronicas, our opening act....)

carp Dana & video Jessie:

Jakey and me w/Big Rob:

the foxy Veronicas in Florida:

Tech Chris, in action, in Chicago:

Ironman Matt and Teeter from lasers, my new friends for life:

I toured with my girl Steffani all last year on Tool and she turned up on this one as well, shown here with Drew from the Demi Lovato band, at our end-of-tour party:

in Florida, with the gracious lady whose DNA powers the star brothers, she was incredibly cool to tour with, true grace under pressure: